Interrobang?! — Interrobang!?

One of the least heralded, but arguably most important new features of the new ClearType font collection is the support for a previously little used character—the interrobang. This character was developed in 1962 by Martin Speckter with the intention of conveying additional information for advertising text.

People have many different opinions on this character. The reactions have varied from, “You want to add what character to the fonts‽” or “Cool, when will I be able to use it in the font‽”

These fonts are not the first fonts that Microsoft has worked on that support this character. Other fonts include Arial Unicode, Palatino Linotype, Lucida Sans Unicode, Frutiger Linotype, and Berling Antiqua.

Here is a look at the interrobangs in the new ClearType font collection.

Greg

Note: if in the above sample sentences you see a rectangle, that is not the shape of the interrobang. That just means the font being used in your reader or browser doesn’t support the interrobang. If you are using Internet Explorer with font embedding, you should see the correct character.

seems kind of like a useless combination to me. I understand the point, and all, but other compound punction — the semi-colon — at least serves a purpose that is independent of the two marks it combines. The interrobang seems to just be a contraction without a whole lot of usefullness. Is there really that much savings between !? and the combination thereof?

I agree. Might as well start working on other unnecessary combinations.

How about a combination of @ and $ for when you wwant to talk about a number of items at a certain price, or ^ and * for when you want to insert footnotes, or # and % for when you’re feeling all math-y.

There’s nothing that the interrobang does or represents that can’t be represented easier and faster just by typing !? or ?! manually. it only takes two shifted keystrokes to accomplish, is already compatible with modern keyboards, and is widely recognized.

So, yay, there’s room inside the fonts for lots of additional, useless characters. Great. But you’d have about ten times the adoption rate if you’d decided to insert a handful of Star Trek or Lord of the Rings alphabets in there instead. Common usage or not, the true geeks’ll use ’em.

"One of the least heralded, but arguably most important new features of the new ClearType font collection […]"

Arguably most important? You aren’t serious, are you? I’d like to hear _that_ argument!! (That was the previously unheralded ligature known as the bangbang.)

I don’t mind the idea of an interrobang, but I think the example you provided in text looks awful. It’s so short and small (at normal text sizes) that it’s nearly illegible. And it doesn’t seem to look much better at different sizes in IE or Firefox. Why isn’t it at least the height of a normal question mark or exclamation point?

Personally, what I like about the interrobang is that it solves the question as to whether a ?! at the end of a sentence is grammatically correct. And it fills its niche elegantly, the way an ampersand is a ligature of et. But if the symbol has been around since the early 60’s and still hasn’t made it’s mark it’s doubtful that it’s going to take off anytime soon.

BTW, I’ve always assumed that the correct style of "?!" is the question mark first. Does anyone use the exclamation point first?

Hey, if you’re going to do something like spell the word backwords because the symbol is backwards, you might as well go all out. I mean, the symbol is backwards _and_ upside down, right? Thus, I give you: Bueporrafui

Count me as a fan of the much maligned interrobang. It’s just so spunky and over-excited that it makes me smile. It’s punctuation with too much caffeine.

What bothers me is that too many fonts resort to unimaginative renderings of this mark — simply superimposing ! over ? and calling it a day. The Candara and Constantia interrobangs have style going for them, which I appreciate. For my money, however, the interrobang in Palatino Linotype is still the prettiest one in any font.

(1) You can safe a space in text messages along with your u (you) and 4 (for).

(2) It has a more specific meaning than the combination of the two characters ? and !.

(3) Likewise, it is great for use in visual media, since it saves space and conveys a particular meaning.

(4) It pioneers the thought that we are the pilots of our own language, and just because we’ve inherited an incredibly arbitrary and often lacking system of punctuation- we don’t have to live with it.

Anyone who’s read the journalist Tom Wolfe’s works will see how he can develop the flow of his language using various punctuation systems, especially the ‘::::’ .

The argument "But who will use it it?!" is silly, especially if you look at the myriad of other rarely used symbols in unicode; Lack of foresight is no reason for lack of inclusion.

I guess the only disappointment at the moment is not the ubiquitous inclusion of the interrobang in fonts. This means that if one is to import text from a source into, say, word- then one has to preserve the font that the interrobang is displayed in. If one isn’t aware of the interrobang’s presence and doesn’t have access to the original source or source font than one is stuck with a big ugly box. great.

The real uselessness of the ib comes from the fact that, except in very informal settings, such as comic book sound effects (where two marks, if not more, add to the effect if anything) or internet postings (where half the time the font you’re using won’t support the display of the character), there’s no place for the use of the two punctuation marks together; for the same reasons, there’s not much use for the combined mark, either. Context, adverbs, and other cues have worked pretty well all this time; I guess I’m with Rod in seeing this as completely unneccessary.

Plus, you have to squint pretty hard to tell it from a smudged question mark.

Thanks everyone for the views on Interrobang – especially Adam Messinger and other enablers~

I’ve used it manually since the age of felt tips and phat lead~

I find it irreplaceable when I come to the end of an emphatic, rhetorical question~

We favor the unitary punkt, with the ‘bang’ element extending above the top curve of the ‘interro’ element, and the lower curve of the ‘interro’ clearly visible as a closed loop to the left of the ‘bang’ bat.

Um, it’s not brilliant, it’s stupid, because you can’t see it. In the text above, introducing the character, it just looks like a question mark with a bit of schmutz on it. You can see it okay at 72 point, but what’s the point of that? The only intelligible way to use it is to type them separately, so you can see them separately: "?!". And it’s ungrammatical.

I guess it’s appealing to people who think ~ is a good character to close a sentence with.

I came across this little sucker on wikipedia the other night and I’ve been using it multiple times a day ever since! Where has it been all my life ‽

I think it’s much more efficient than the ?!/!? and saves you the guilt of being ungrammatical.

I have to agree, though, in it’s current state it kinda looks like a "?" with a booger. I think it would be clearer to recognize in a smaller font size if the body of the "!" extended through the top of the "?" How many people confuse $ and ¢ with the letters S and c‽

Agree with dan man and others. There is just no need for the font snobbery being shown. I also don’t understand why it is shorter than its sister punctuation marks. If it were the full height, perhaps it would be more legible.

One of the least heralded, but arguably most important new features of the new ClearType font collection is the support for a previously little used character—the interrobang. This character was developed in 1962 by Martin Speckter with the intention

When I first began reading the comment thread, I was truly disappointed with the amount of nay-sayers! But I read on.

Those who approve seem to have much more practical and intellectual arguments… Those who don’t are not following the larger context in which the necessity for the character was born. And they apparently just can’t seem to fathom that its purpose is not to increase the speed at which you type. Last I checked, no one *needs* to instant message anyone any faster.

Working in the graphic communications field, I find clarity of written expression — in general — is sorely lacking!

The interrobang is useful in many circumstances.

And a P.S.: I’m currently working on a masthead that combines the ! and , — does anyone know if other less traditional punctuation combinations have been given names?